We can only know what we can truly imagine. Finally what we see comes from ourselves.

the body is simple as a turtle / and straight as a dog: / the body cannot lie.

Suspense is one of the ways you persuade a reader to become engaged and stay engaged with your work.

I don't think writers change the past any more than other people do, except in so far as we may mine our lives and change things for fictional use.

Grandmother Hannah comes to me at Pesach and when I am lighting the sabbath candles. The sweet wine in the cup has her breath.... a little winter no spring can melt.

I don't even remember what Mother and I quarreled about: it is a continual quarrel that began when I reached puberty.

Where I came from, the nights I had wandered and survived scared them, and where I would go they never imagined.